SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT(Publ. 08/20/08) Dependency Advocacy Center has been awarded a contract by the state and
county court systems to represent primarily parents in cases in dependency
court. An editorial on Tuesday incorrectly said that the firm’s clients would
be children

Few readers had heard of dependency courts and few legislators had paid attention to them before Mercury News Staff Writer Karen de Sa’s series in February, “Broken Families, Broken Courts,” exposed monumental problems in their operation. But awareness from the articles and the focus brought by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George have created hope for reforming the courts that oversee the plightof neglected and abused children.

Last week the governing body for state courts approved dozens of reforms recommended by a commission George appointed. Finding money to carry them out will be challenging, but the new Assembly speaker, Karen Bass, has made foster care her crusade. Now that it’s on the front burner, she should turn up the heat.

As de Sa observed, dependency courts have been the stepchild of the judiciary, with overworked lawyers and commissioners instead of judges dispensing assembly-line verdicts. They shuffle too many children off to foster care instead of following a more intensive but often more effective strategy of reuniting them with relatives.

There’s no escaping that drastically reducing lawyers’ caseloads and replacing magistrates with judges will cost money. So will raising the maximum age for foster care to 21, ending the cruel practice of cutting off support on a youth’s 18th birthday.

However, much can be done at little cost. This month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring that older children be given the option to participate in hearings. Too often courts had acted as if their insights didn’t count.

Constant monitoring will be crucial, particularly in Santa Clara County. The local court has awarded a two-year contract to an offshoot of the firm that had been criticized for poorly representing children. An audit of the previous firm’s finances is still under way.

Attorneys now are required to document their time with clients and hire investigators and experts where justified. Amazingly, this is just a pilot program. More oversight has been needed for years.

Dependency courts had been out of sight and out of mind. Courts and legislators now cannot look the other way.